"Live" from Art Basel Miami Beach -- "Pass-Through" Dining Enlivens the Street

Outdoor eating is rightly believed to enliven a street. Being outside can also make eating more fun for patrons. Miami has a number of eating establishments that take advantage of very small spaces with a variation on a sidewalk cafe. This variation is serving people using a pass-through or having people eat at a counter where the food preparation is done inside and the customer eats outside.

An excellent example is La Sandwicherie, on 14th Street and Collins Court (effectively, an alley that runs parallel to Collins and Washington avenues) in Miami Beach. La Sandwicherie is less than 10 feet deep (see bottom photo of its short side), which includes work space, storage, and a passageway. Patrons sit on stools or stand at the counter, under the protection (if necessary) of an awning (see middle photo).

"Yes, Andrew, this is very nice for a warm climate like Miami's". Yes, Miami's weather (short of the hurricanes) is conducive for this type of restaurant design. However, there is ample evidence that people are willing to eat outdoors in much cooler weather. Just look at the success of cafes in Paris during non-summer months. Find a busy crevice in a temperate climate where people are hungry, and this type of design might work for most of the year.

Halloween Redux -- Halsted Street's Fantasies Improve Public Life

As I wrote the other day, Halloween is an important revelatory event ("Terror and Tacos in Portage and Albany Parks, Respectively"). For the first time, I went to the Halsted Street Halloween parade in Boystown in Lakeview. The juxtaposition of images and characters can be very creatively stimulating: Pacman chased by a dominatrix (really a by a ghost, but the "lady" with a whip is not far behind); a chicken appearing to hold a news conference; and guys with an excuse not to wear much.

These types of events -- carnivals, parades, street fairs -- can also be remarkably important in developing and maintaining a civil and, dare I say, a loving public life. We can learn about, learn from, and value difference. Most human differences -- food, clothing, speech patterns, etc. -- are utterly unimportant, but acquire monstrous meaning in a vacuum. With a human (or Pacman) face, these differences can be seen as harmless, and as enriching, as they have the potential to be.

Next year I will be in the parade itself and, perhaps, outdo the chicken.